


Food thievery

by fuzzybooks



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Gen, food theft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-22
Updated: 2013-05-22
Packaged: 2017-12-12 15:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/813224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuzzybooks/pseuds/fuzzybooks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bombur works as a chef and food goes missing and it's an unsolved mystery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Food thievery

At first Bombur didn’t take notice, but eventually the little things started added up, a chunk of meat here, a roll of bread there and the other chefs started looking accusingly at Bombur. Bombur certainly hadn’t taken anything though, he was a professional and the amounts lost certainly went beyond sampling what was cooked. 

The tension rose in the kitchen, with everyone trying to make a note of everything while keeping a close eye on each other, but to no avail. Food was still going missing. It went on and got to the point where there were talks of bringing in the Boss, but talks of that were quickly quieted, all three of them would be out of a job if they did, and with the state of things they would be lucky to find another. Bombur was not willing to let that happen, especially not with a baby on the way. So he decided to investigate.

He knew that the chefs were innocent, so clearly the suspects next in line were the servers, but no matter how hard he looked and how closely he paid attention, he could not catch them in the act. Not even the ones that he knew sorely needed the extra food for themselves and their families were taking a single crumb more than they had earned.

It left him back at square one, and Vidgar and Widna were talking about bringing in the Boss again when suddenly it stopped. Everything started being accounted for, and they weren’t losing bits and pieces along the week. Several weeks passed and soon those weeks turned into months and the incident of the stolen food was forgotten.

 

Until one day when Bombur had joined his brother and cousin on the quest to Erebor and young Ori sat down beside him, offering him knitted mittens with detachable flaps.

“It’s so you can still do stuff with your fingers, but the rest of your hand doesn’t get cold.” Ori said and offered him a smile. “It doesn’t quite make up for you nearly losing your job, but Nori did the best he could.” He shrugged.

“I was wondering, your fried potatoes and meat is absolutely amazing, do you think you could teach me? When we’ve got Erebor back?” Ori asked and Bombur gave him a shy smile and nodded, and they spent the rest of the evening talking about food and the things they could make when they had access to Erebor’s kitchens, and a proper food supply of course.

What Ori had told him didn’t fully register until he was getting ready for bed and he tried on his new mittens, that Bofur teased him about(“They’re purple Bombur, didn’t know you were interested in fashion!”), and he remembered why he had almost lost his job once, all those years ago. The food thief. He looked over at where Nori was sitting by the fire and gave him a nod, he could understand being driven to extreme lengths for the sake of family, and certainly couldn’t hold a grudge about anything that had kept little Ori alive. He just wished he would have the chance to teach the lad how to cook.


End file.
